Dylan Matthews

Last updated
Dylan Matthews
NationalityAmerican
OccupationJournalist
Notable workFuture Perfect

Dylan Matthews is an American journalist. He is currently a correspondent for Vox , an online media venture.

Contents

Professional life

Early writing

In 2004, at the age of 14, Matthews launched a personal blog on politics and other issues under the name minipundit. [1] [2] Matthews graduated from Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 2008. He went on to Harvard University, where he studied social and political philosophy, and also wrote for The Harvard Crimson . [3]

The Washington Post

Between June 2013 and January 2014, Matthews blogged at the Wonkblog section of The Washington Post , [4] focusing on taxes, budgets, and other elements of US economic and fiscal policy.

In October 2013, Wonkblog journalist Ezra Klein and Matthews spearheaded the launch of "Know More", a new blog under The Washington Post targeted at replicating the viral reach of popular websites such as BuzzFeed. The project's success gained Matthews recognition internally in The Washington Post and externally. Matthews won The Washington Post "Publisher's Award" of October 2013 for his work on Know More. [5] A leaked internal memo from The Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth announcing the award stated:

At its heart, KnowMore is Dylan Matthews.

Dylan is the writer and producer—but more than that, the sensibility—behind KnowMore, which is a blog aimed at drawing attention to the very best work offered by the Post and also by other publications. Conceived by Ezra Klein as a way to extend the Wonkblog brand further into social media, built by Yuri Victor and sustained with help from the whole Wonkblog crew, KnowMore is not trolling for cheap clicks. The idea is to grab readers' attention and draw them into deeper reading about substantive subjects (OK, plus the occasional silly diversion).

After launching Oct. 7, KnowMore rocketed to the top echelons of Post blogs. On some days, KnowMore draws more traffic than Wonkblog. For the third week of October—the third week of its existence—KnowMore was the No.1 most-read blog on all of washingtonpost.com. It is consistently in the top five. [5]

When interviewed about the strategy of the project, Matthews suggested it was primarily about publishing content that would be shared and virally-distributed on Facebook: "The most obvious similarity [to BuzzFeed and Upworthy] there is in targeting Facebook rather than Twitter. If you look at any site that does well socially, there's just a handful that get their traffic from Twitter. Journalists sometimes forget this because we tend to really like Twitter." [6]

Responding to negative comparisons with BuzzFeed, Matthews said: "It really irks me when people act like they're better than BuzzFeed, which is an extremely effective journalism outfit—much better than most at being honestly what people are looking for." Klein also rejected direct comparisons to "clickbait", arguing: "There's this idea that there's this thing called click-bait that everybody wants to click on. If I could figure out what that is and get people to click on good content—my god, what a wonderful thing!" [7]

Vox.com

In late January 2014, Klein and Matthews announced that they, along with Matthew Yglesias and Melissa Bell, would be starting a new online media venture with Vox Media. [8] The venture, named Vox.com, launched in early April 2014, [9] and Matthews wrote his first article for the site in April 2014. [10] [11] The scientific research Matthews reported on in that article turned out to be fraudulent, and 13 months later he wrote a mea culpa article about the fraud and how he was deceived by it. [12] Matthews leads the Vox section Future Perfect, dedicated to effective altruism.

Other

Matthews has also written for Salon [13] and The New Republic [14] and has appeared on the now defunct Bloggingheads.tv. [15] [16] His writings have covered basic income, immigration policy, effective altruism, among other topics.

Matthews is on the advisory board of the Journal of Economic Perspectives , an economic journal published by the American Economic Association. [17]

Reception

Matthews was listed as one of "five rising stars under 25" in Politics Daily by Katie Glueck in 2010. [2] Matthews is noted for his use of data visualizations in his publications. [18]

Charity evaluator and effective altruism advocate GiveWell published a conversation with Matthews from when he was still working for The Washington Post Wonkblog section. [19]

In 2016, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network recognized Matthews as the most outstanding autistic journalist of the year by presenting him with the Harriet McBryde Johnson Award for Non-Fiction Writing. [20]

Personal life

In 2017, Matthews donated his kidney for transplantation. He described the experience in a Vox article, in which he also encouraged readers to consider live kidney donation. [21]

Matthews identifies with the effective altruism movement and is a member of Giving What We Can, a community of people who have pledged to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Yglesias</span> American blogger and journalist (born 1981)

Matthew Yglesias is an American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as The American Prospect, The Atlantic, and Slate. In 2014 he co-founded the news website Vox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezra Klein</span> American journalist (born 1984)

Ezra Klein is an American progressive journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. His first book, Why We're Polarized, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonah Peretti</span> American businessman

Jonah H. Peretti is an Internet entrepreneur, a co-founder and the CEO of BuzzFeed, co-founder of The Huffington Post, and developer of reblogging under the project "Reblog".

BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, started as a co-founder and investor in BuzzFeed and is now the executive chairman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Lowrey</span> American journalist (born 1984)

Annie M. Lowrey is an American journalist who writes on politics and economic policy for The Atlantic. Previously, Lowrey covered economic policy for the New York Times and prior to that was the Moneybox columnist for Slate. She was also a staff writer for the Washington Independent and served on the editorial staffs of Foreign Policy and The New Yorker. She is a leading proponent of universal basic income.

Good Ventures is a private foundation and philanthropic organization in San Francisco, and the fifth largest foundation in Silicon Valley. It was co-founded by Cari Tuna, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and her husband Dustin Moskovitz, one of the co-founders of Facebook. Good Ventures adheres to principles of Effective Altruism and aims to spend most or all of its money before Moskovitz and Tuna die. Good Ventures does not have any full-time staff, and instead distributes grants according to recommendations from Open Philanthropy.

Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, sometimes called effective altruists, may choose careers based on the amount of good that they expect the career to achieve or donate to charities based on the goal of maximising positive impact. They may work on the prioritization of scientific projects, entrepreneurial ventures, and policy initiatives estimated to save the most lives or reduce the most suffering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clickbait</span> Web content intended to entice users to click on a link

Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading. A "teaser" aims to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content. Clickbait headlines often add an element of dishonesty, using enticements that do not accurately reflect the content being delivered. The "-bait" suffix makes an analogy with fishing, where a hook is disguised by an enticement (bait), presenting the impression to the fish that it is a desirable thing to swallow.

<i>The Ethics of Immigration</i> Book by Joseph Carens

The Ethics of Immigration is a September 2013 book by the philosopher Joseph Carens.

ClickHole is a satirical website that parodies clickbait websites such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy. It was launched on June 12, 2014, in conjunction with The Onion's decision to stop its print edition and shift its focus exclusively to the internet. According to ClickHole's senior editor, Jermaine Affonso, the website is "The Onion's response to click-bait content" and serves as "a parody of online media". Critics noted that, on a deeper level, ClickHole illustrates the shallow nature of social media content and media sites' desperation to share such content.

<i>Vox</i> (website) American news website

Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix. Vox has been described as left-leaning and progressive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ScoopWhoop</span> Indian internet media and news company

ScoopWhoop Media is an Indian digital media company based in New Delhi. It operates various online content verticals and serves as a news organisation featuring web series, documentaries and current affairs reporting with a focus on video production and primarily catering to adolescents and young adults. It also features other infotainment and entertainment content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Effective Altruism</span> Non-profit effective altruist organization

The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is an Oxford-based organisation that builds and supports the effective altruism community. It was founded in 2012 by William MacAskill and Toby Ord, both philosophers at the University of Oxford. CEA is part of Effective Ventures, a federation of projects working to have a large positive impact in the world.

Wonkblog was a blog, hosted by the Washington Post, that was dedicated to domestic policy, economics and politics. It was started by Ezra Klein, originally as a solo venture, but, by February 2013, had grown to employ a staff of five people. The Post originally rebuffed his attempts to persuade them to support Wonkblog.

Open Philanthropy is a research and grantmaking foundation that makes grants based on the doctrine of effective altruism. It was founded as a partnership between GiveWell and Good Ventures. Its current chief executive officer is Alexander Berger, and its main funders are Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz. Dustin says that their wealth, worth $11 billion, is "pooled up around us right now, but it belongs to the world. We intend not to have much when we die."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effective Altruism Global</span> Recurring effective altruism conference

Effective Altruism Global, abbreviated EA Global or EAG, is a series of philanthropy conferences that focuses on the effective altruism movement. The conferences are run by the Centre for Effective Altruism. Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney described the events as a gathering of "nerd altruists", which was "heavy on people from technology, science, and analytical disciplines".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Bell (journalist)</span> American journalist and technologist

Melissa Bell is an American journalist and technologist. She helped launch the Indian business newspaper Mint, and held several positions at The Washington Post, starting in 2010. She and Ezra Klein left the newspaper to co-found the news and opinion website Vox with Matthew Yglesias in 2014. Bell was named vice president of growth and analytics for Vox Media in 2015, and has been the company's publisher since 2016.

Eva Love Vivalt is a Canadian economist. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto and the director of the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford.

<i>Slate Star Codex</i> Blog focused on psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and futurism

Slate Star Codex (SSC) is a blog focused on science, medicine, philosophy, politics, and futurism. The blog was written by Scott Alexander Siskind, a San Francisco Bay Area psychiatrist, under the pen name Scott Alexander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evidence Action</span> American non-profit organization

Evidence Action is an American non-profit organization founded in 2013 that scales cost-effective development interventions with rigorous evidence supporting their efficacy. The organization operates four main programs: the Deworm the World Initiative, Safe Water Now, Equal Vitamin Access, and Syphilis-Free Start. It also operates an Accelerator program, whereby new development interventions are screened and scaled according to efficacy. Vox Media has described Evidence Action as taking a "VC approach to development work".

References

  1. ↑ "Dylan Matthews: The Blogger Formerly Known as Minipundit" . Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Glueck, Katie (July 24, 2010). "Five Rising Stars Age 25 and Under" . Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Dylan R. Matthews". The Harvard Crimson . Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Dylan Matthews: Reporter". The Washington Post . Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Herrman, John (2013-11-14). "Memo: It Took Three Weeks For The Washington Post's Viral Site To Become Its Biggest Blog". BuzzFeed . Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  6. ↑ Kirkland, Sam (2013-10-17). "Viral strategy behind WaPo's Know More blog won't blow your mind; read this anyway". Poynter Institute . Archived from the original on 2015-07-23. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  7. ↑ O'Donovan, Caroline (2013-10-09). "You won't believe which media company just launched a BuzzFeed-inspired microsite". Nieman Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism . Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  8. ↑ Klein, Ezra (January 26, 2014). "Vox is our next". The Verge . Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  9. ↑ Hartmann, Margaret (April 7, 2014). "Understanding Ezra Klein's Newly Launched Vox.com". New York Magazine . Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Dylan Matthews". Vox.com . Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Simply talking to people about same-sex marriage makes them more tolerant". Vox.com. April 8, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  12. ↑ "This was the biggest political science study of last year. It was a complete fraud". Vox.com. May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  13. ↑ Matthews, Dylan (November 11, 2011). "Occupy Harvard gets the old college jeer. In the school of the 1 percent, griping greets the movement". Salon . Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Dylan Matthews". The New Republic . Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Dylan Matthews". Bloggingheads.tv. July 7, 2012. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Google Search results for Dylan Matthews on Bloggingheads.tv" . Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  17. ↑ "American Economic Association". www.aeaweb.org. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  18. ↑ "26 charts and maps that show the world is getting much, much better". Vox. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
  19. ↑ "A conversation with Dylan Matthews" (PDF). GiveWell. April 10, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  20. ↑ "2016 ASAN Gala, Harriet McBryde Johnson Award for Non-Fiction Writing: Dylan Matthews". Autistic Self Advocacy Network. 9 December 2016.
  21. ↑ Matthews, Dylan (11 April 2017). "Why I gave my kidney to a stranger — and why you should consider doing it too". Vox.
  22. ↑ "Our Members". givingwhatwecan.org.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.